Archive for the ‘United Left Alliance’ Category
ULA Budget 2013 Statement
Link to PDF :
SE 31 – ULA Statement on Budget 2013
Commenting on the ULA’s pre budget statement Socialist Party/United Left Alliance TD for Dublin West Joe Higgins said:
“This statement for me is not about how I think the capitalist system should be run. The system itself is crisis and is failure from the point of view of working class people, low and middle income as well as the unemployed, pensioners and students. What the statement highlights is that economic activity as it is organised under this system continues to make a small minority obscenely wealthy and that if the economy was organised in a different manner the basis would be there to overturn the austerity and meet the needs of people. None of this, not the cancellation of the debt or the taxing of wealth, will be achieved by reasoning with the political establishment or the troika. Instead it has to be struggled for and if such a struggle takes place the resistance that would come from the rich to having their privileges challenged would make clearer to ordinary people the need for a fundamentally different type of society. For me that is a democratic socialist alternative to capitalist crisis.”
Shame on an Irish Government that will not Legislate for Abortion – Again
Abortion – the campaign won’t go away. National Meeting on Saturday December 8 in the Gresham Hotel, O’Connell Street, Dublin at 12 noon.
Outside The Dail tonight after Clare Dalys Bill was voted down.
Just adding Clare Dalys speech from last night in the Dail
ULA: Demonstrate! 1pm Sat 24 Nov, Parnell Square, Dublin
This post and the comments indicate that the November 24 Pre-Budget Anti-Austerity March has wide support ; See also http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dublin-Council-of-Trade-Unions/115330285145261?fref=ts
Savita’s Laws
Large Demonstration Outside Leinster House on Wednesday November 21 –
Legislate for Abortion Now
Clare Daly has re-tabled her bill to legalise abortion, which will be debated next
Wednesday. ULA members distributed literature calling for another demo to coincide with the
legislation debate.
Praveen Halappanavar did an interview on RTÉ tonight calling for legalisation of abortion,
and thanking the over 10,000 people who demonstrated in Dublin last Saturday.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1121/howlin-halappanavar.html#video
This crowd was overwhelmingly made up of people in their 20’s and 30’s, a big majority of
them women.
The government is still in a very deep crisis.
The public arena is transformed: see for example this pro-choice article by Vincent Browne
in the Irish Times :
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/1121/1224326896233.html?via=mr
International Day of Action for legal Abortion in Ireland
Labour and Fine Gael Must Legislate for the X Case – Gather at the Dáil on November 28, 6pm
Praveen Halappanavar, husband of Savita Speaks – he has little confidence in the Health Services Executive Inquiry established by the Irish State and encourages public mass activity :
Mr Halappanavar also said there were five members of medical staff, as well as a family friend, present in the room with him and Savita when they were told on Tuesday, October 23rd that she could not have a termination of the pregnancy she was miscarrying because “this is a Catholic country”.
Mr Halappanavar also said he believed no inquiry would have been established if his wife’s death had not been brought to public attention.
“I was in India for nearly two weeks and I never heard from the hospital . . . So I had to see people became aware . . . I don’t think there would be any inquiry if there was not the public pressure. I think there would have been an inquest and no one would have known this happened. It is a pity because I thought Ireland would care more for someone so young who died. That let me down. I was not happy about that.”
Asked whether Ms Halappanavar’s parents would come to Ireland for the inquiry or inquest, he said if her father was not “convinced with the investigation” he was “very keen to come over”.
“The law has to change. Maybe Savita was born to change the laws here.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2012/1120/1224326840862.html
North Kildare Deputy Catherine Murphy makes a telling point about Dáil Votes; discussing the Sinn Féin Private Members’ Motion tabled for decision on Wednesday November 21, Murphy observes :
Catherine Murphy, Chief Whip of the Technical Group, said she would support the motion but expected the response of her colleagues in the group would be “mixed”, with more left-wing members backing the motion while others would not do so.
She added: “It’s not a Private Members’ Motion that we actually require, it’s legislation. I’m disappointed the Minister for Health is talking about it being next year before action is taken.It does look like being some considerable distance down the road. I don’t want it pushed along so that the heat is taken out of the situation: the same set of circumstances could apply to some other woman in the future.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/1119/1224326787221.html
An Irish Rising Day, November 17 2012 – “The great only appear great because we are on our knees. Let us rise!” – Jim Larkin
http://www.facebook.com/actiononx2012
The foundations of the right-wing Fine Gael / Labour Coalition are shaking, trembling, and rocking from side to side :
If it falls, good riddance
“Today a statue of “Big Jim” stands on O’Connell Street in Dublin. The inscription on the front of the monument is an extract in French, Irish and English from one of his famous speeches:
Les grands ne sont grands que parce que nous sommes à genoux: Levons-nous.
Ní uasal aon uasal ach sinne bheith íseal: Éirímis.
The great appear great because we are on our knees: Let us rise.The slogan, first used on the 18th century French radical paper Révolutions de Paris,[14] also appeared on the masthead of the Workers’ Republic, founded by James Connolly in Dublin in August, 1898. Originally the organ of the Irish Socialist Republican Party, this periodical later became the official organ of the Communist Party of Ireland, which was founded in 1921. The original slogan is usually attributed to Camille Desmoulins (1760–1794), the French revolutionary”
Today :
Mass protest is the only way to win change on abortion
http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/savita-protest-dublin-677586-Nov2012/
The November 17 Never Again Dublin Demonstration got huge media coverage in Ireland and abroad.
The Irish Times Reported :
It was headed by a giant banner which read “Never Again”, adorned with images of the 31-year-old Indian dentist.
Organisers of the Dublin march said about 20,000 people had turned out, but a Garda spokeswoman said they estimated the figure to be between 10,000 and 12,000.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/1118/breaking3.html
Clare Daly TD spoke powerfully :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=faZj8L5pqGw
See also this statement from the ULA TD’s Clare Daly and Joan Collins :
Labour and Fine Gael bear responsibility for death of woman who was denied abortion
– The crisis is triggered by 7 governments’ refusals to act on the 20-year-old 1992 Supreme Court X Case Abortion Judgment
– The crisis is caused by the preventable death of Savita Halappanavar – 20 TD’s voted for Clare Daly TD’s Bill to implement the X Case Judgment – 111 Members of the Leinster House Parliament – mainly Fine Gael and Labour Government Deputies – voted against – Read the rest of this entry »
Global Coverage of Savita Halappanavar’s Avoidable Death in an Irish Galway Hospital
“As the news of Halappanavar’s death was reported via newspaper front pages on Tonight With Vincent Browne on TV3, and across Twitter on Tuesday night, reactions almost uniform in their sadness, anger and outrage turned to organising demonstrations both in memory of Halappanavar and against the delay in legislating on the ‘X Case’, which international readers can learn about here. By Wednesday evening, protests had already taken place in Ireland, and Halappanavar’s death and the surrounding issues were being covered internationally.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/poplife/2012/11/14/savitahalappanavar/
Never Again – Savita Sought an Abortion in a Galway Hospital – Irish State Said No – 3 Days Later She Died
Months ago ULA TD Clare Daly TD proposed a new law to implement the 1992 Supreme Court Judgment in the X Case. 20 Dail Deputies voted Yes to Clare’s bill – they have nothing to be ashamed about. 111 Deputies, mainly Fine Gael and Labour Government Deputies, voted against the X Case Bill. Shame on them. Time for a new emergency bill – never again.
London conference: New parties of the left
On Saturday 29th September the British group Socialist Resistance organised a very interesting day of discussion in London on the new European, broad, pluralistic, left parties. It was a kind of update of their seminal conference on the same theme held in London in 2000. Minus one or two of the organisations that have since died or shrunk. As is common on the British left there was no cognisance of Ireland or the ULA in the published programme for the day.
It was also a kind of ‘film of the book’ of the uneven but instructive New Parties of the Left: Experiences from Europe (Resistance Books 2011).
Both Tomás and I were at the 2000 meeting but as it was a busy weekend I unfortunately could not travel to this meeting. Never mind, technology has since allowed us to attend meetings without actually going to them and many of the speeches were recorded and put up on the Socialist Resistance website. The actual line up seems to have departed slightly from the advertised billing.
Below is the line up for the day and then the filmed speeches in the rough chronological order in which I think they were delivered.
Des Derwin
New parties of the left
A day of debate organised by London Socialist Resistance
Saturday 29 September, 10:30am – 5pm
With Stathis Kouvelakis (Syriza), Kate Hudson (Respect), Adam Hanieh (author and activist), Sandra Demarcq (NPA – France), Andrew Burgin (CoR), Alan Thornett (Socialist Resistance), Michael Voss (Red Green Alliance – Enheidlisten, Denmark), and Phillipe Nadouce (Front de Gauche).
At ULU, Malet Street, London, WC1
stathis-kouvelakis-on-greece-6376827
kate-hudson-on-new-left-parties-6376775
denmark-s-red-green-alliance-6376835
the-radicalisation-in-the-arab-world-6376840
the-need-for-broad-parties-of-the-left-6376878
Stanford University California – Ex-Taoiseach Brian Cowen is a $58,000 student on a Six-Week Course
The Irish Daily Mail is running a story on ex-Taoiseach Brian Cowen :
Link :
Brian Cowen at Stanford University
Let’s wait and see how this story develops.
The words “Stanford University” rang a bell here :
Reilly’s special advisor paid €160,000 for 80% of his time, works here ‘on average’ 2 weeks a month
Health Analyst Sara Burke reported about Mr Martin Connor on February 17 2012 :
Connor, a special advisor to Health Minister James Reilly, divides his time between Ireland and Stanford University, California :
Word was out in the health system that Martin Connor worked here just eight days out of 24 and was based in California. When I asked the Department of Health how much of his time was dedicated to his special delivery unit work and where was he based, I was told, ‘The time commitment is of the order of 80%. Dr Connor is currently completing a research fellowship in Stanford University. He is in Ireland for two weeks a month on average but also conducts work by teleconference on a daily basis.’ Teleconferences on a daily basis must be difficult given the time difference between California and Dublin.
Link :
Health Minister Reilly’s Special Advisor Paid €160,000; Studies at Stanford University California
In recent days mainstream Irish media outlets ran a story about an alleged “scandal” – 3 United Left Alliance TD’s travelled outside their Dublin constituencies to support the Campaign Against the Household Tax.
Link :
Smear Campaign Against ULA TD’s on Travel Expenses
Makes you wonder about the calibre of wealthy students at Stanford University California, Irish State Bodies Paying Very Expensive Fees, and Double Standards in the Main Irish media outlets.
Update 1 :
Link :
Tomás Ó Flatharta 